CHINA
PAKISTAN
TURKEY
ISRAEL
LAOS
5W InfOgrAphICs; ALEXAnDEr sTEgMAIEr AnD JOhn TOMAnIO, ngM sTAff
sOurCEs: TEMpLE MOunT sIfTIng prOJECT; IsTAnBuL ArChAEOLOgICAL MusEuMs;
shAAnXI prOVInCIAL ArChAEOLOgICAL InsTITuTE; nATIOnAL MusEuM Of pAKIsTAn
MoHENjo DARo
sindh, pakistan
stone figurine, 2600-1900 B.C.
Salts in the groundwater are
causing exposed brick
buildings to crumble at the
site of this early city from the
Indus civilization. It was
discovered in 1922 and
excavated on and off until
1965. Pakistan’s government
has halted further digging.
RoyAL MAuSoLEuM
Xian, China
Bronze swan, 221-210 B.C .
China’s first emperor planned a
large funerary complex. His tomb
and its possible treasures remain
unexcavated, awaiting new
techniques in artifact conserva-
tion. In 1974 his terra-cotta army
was discovered, but experts have
only recently learned how to
preserve the paint on the figures.
pLAIN oF jARS
Xiangkhoang, Laos
stone urn, 500 B.C. -A .D. 500
Unexploded bombs from the
1960s and ’70s, during the civil
war, make it risky to examine
the hundreds of jar-shaped
stones, some ten feet tall,
found in northern Laos. A
study in the 1930s identified
them as funerary urns.